Albania
nationalist rally fails to draw crowds(Balkan Insight):
"A protest by the Red and Black Alliance on Sunday in
Tirana, which promised to overturn the government of Prime Minister
Sali Berisha, failed to muster much popular support"

AUSTRIA: Tank
deal in Slovenia: lobbyist Riedl convicted (Austrian
Times): " The armour lobbyist Hans-Wolfgang Riedl was
sentenced to three years in jail due to corruption last Friday.
Mr Riedl was accused of having smuggled bribe money (several
hundred thousands Euros) to Slovenia in 2007"

BALKANS: Anti-hate-speech
initiative spreading to the Balkans (SETimes.com): "Young
people ages 13 to 30 are the target of the Council of Europe's
No Hate Speech Movement, a new campaign seeking to raise awareness
of online hate speech and its threat to democracy"

BALKANS: Macedonia,
Serbia boost military co-operation (SETimes.com): "Macedonia
and Serbia are furthering their military co-operation after signing
an agreement for joint training at Macedonia's military polygon
Krivolak, which is rated as one of the best in Europe, according
to experts"

CROATIA: 20,000
Croatians rally in Zagreb against Cyrillic(Balkan Insight):
"Protesters took to the streets against the official
introduction of the Serbian language and Cyrillic script but
Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said he wouldnt give in
to their demands"

Czech,
Slovak presidents call for closer cooperation(Prague
Daily Monitor): "The Czech and Slovak presidents, Milos
Zeman and Ivan Gasparovic, would welcome a better transport connection
between their countries and a closer cooperation of companies,
such as rail cargo operators, they said after their meeting in
Bratislava Thursday"

CZECH REPUBLIC: Media
stereotype Roma minority, analysis shows(Prague Daily
Monitor): "Czech media carry stereotypical information
on Romanies and contribute to the worsening of their public image,
according to an analysis by the government social integration
agency that was released yesterday, International Roma Day."
See also: Roma
integration partly successful, town officials say(Prague
Daily Monitor): "The neighbourhoods primarily inhabited
by Czech Romanies and socially weak persons are being gradually
integrated into the towns, the mayors of Brno, Vsetin and Most
told CTK yesterday"

CZECH REPUBLIC: Poll:
President should not grant amnesty on his own(Prague
Daily Monitor): "A majority of Czechs (53 percent) believe
the president should grant amnesty or pardon only with the consent
of another political institution, compared with 41 percent a
year ago, according to the latest CVVM agency's poll released
Thursday"

DENMARK: Citizenship
waiting times soaring(The Copenhagen Post): "Waiting
times for people applying for Danish citizenship have surged
since the current Socialdemokraterne-led government took over
in the autumn of 2011"

EU
must be enabled to enforce visa reciprocity, say Civil Liberties
MEPs (European Parliament, press release): "Reimposing
visa requirements on nationals of third countries that fail to
remove them for EU citizens would be made easier by visa reciprocity
rule changes voted in the Civil Liberties Committee on Monday.
The EU could also temporarily suspend its visa-free travel rules
to halt "substantial and sudden increases" in irregular
migrant numbers or unfounded asylum applications, but only as
a last resort, MEPs added. But these changes have first to be
agreed with EU member states"

EU: Hot
off the press: how the ECtHR is indeed going to watch the EU
(UK Human Rights Blog): "There has been a lot of speculation...
about how the roles of the EU Court (the CJEU) and the Strasbourg
Court might be fitted together. Now at least we have some of
the proposed answers, though there are a number of formal steps
to be undergone before it comes into law"

Germany
arms itself for the drone age (Deutsche Welle): "Unmanned
aircraft continue to gain an ever more vital role in conflicts
around the globe, as well as in domestic security. Germany is
no exception. But as one drone pilot reports, the work can be
tremendously taxing"

Germany
too lax on human trafficking? (Deutsche Welle): "
The EU is pushing for more action against human trafficking and
better protection for the victims. But Germany has missed the
EU's deadline to implement new rules. Critics say Germany needs
to step up its game"

GERMANY: Jobless
sick 'to face more official suspicion' (The Local): "Germans
living on the most basic state unemployment support who do not
have to seek work because they are sick will face increased checks
and reduction of payments should they be unconvincing, according
to an internal document"

GERMANY: SPD
calls for action on neo-Nazi trial seats row(The Local):
"The government must get involved in the current controversy
over which newspapers are allowed to attend a neo-Nazi trial
in Munich later this month, Social Democratic Party chief Sigmar
Gabriel said on Sunday"

GERMANY: Unwanted
guests: Far-right NPD to hold convention in parking lot(Spiegel
Online): "The right-wing extremist NPD wants to hold
a party conference this weekend, but the only venue it could
find is a parking lot in Bavaria. The event threatens to be disrupted
by road construction and anti-Nazi protestors promising to build
a wall of sound with rock music and chainsaws"

GREECE: Clashes
in Patra as leftists attack Golden Dawn hangout(Ekathimerini):
"Police in Patras in Western Greece on Monday night had
to use tear gas to disperse a group of leftists who attacked
a cafe-bar on central Ypsilon Alonion Square that is frequented
by members and supporters of the ultranationalist party Golden
Dawn"

ITALY: Four
race-crime convictions for neo-Nazi website (Gazzetta
del Sud): "Four men were convicted of inciting race hatred
Monday from the Italian website of the neo-Nazi group Stormfront.
The four, aged 23 to 42 and from various towns across Italy,
were sentenced to terms ranging from 30 months to three years
for "promoting and directing a group whose purpose was the
instigation to ethnic, religious and racial discrimination and
violence"."

ITALY: Roma
and Sinti delegation meets with House speaker (Gazzetta
del Sud): "A delegation of Roma and Sinti met with Italian
House Speaker Laura Boldrini on Monday in Rome on the UN-established
international day celebrating the minority group that has been
defined as Europe's most discriminated"

MALTA: Updated
- Director of Prisons submits his resignation (Times
of Malta): "The Director of Prisons, Abraham Zammit,
has submitted his resignation after the Home Affairs Minister
yesterday made a surprise visit to the prisons and found that
four guards had left for home several hours early"

NETHERLANDS: Prison
staff plan strike over reforms (Dutch News): "Prison
service staff say they will go on strike later this month unless
junior justice minister Fred Teeven withdraws reform plans, which
include closing down a number of prisons"

Norway
authorities face possible Utøya court case (The
Foreigner): " Families of victims of the Utøya
shootings are considering legal action against both the police
and the Norwegian state for failings which allowed Anders Behring
Breivik to commit the worst spree killing by a single gunman
ever to occur in peacetime"

SLOVAKIA: IOM:
Many migrants face violence (The Slovak Spectator): "Forty-three
percent of migrants to Slovakia have experienced lighter
forms of violence in public, at home or at work, while
15 percent have experienced serious expressions of
violence, a study conducted by the International Organization
for Migration (IOM) in Slovakia into the immigrant experience
of violence, based on 690 individual responses, has found."

SLOVAKIA: UN
report focuses on plight of Roma (The Slovak Spectator):
"No running water, no electricity and no work: this is
what life looks like in a typical Roma settlement in Slovakia.
Added to this is the ongoing insecurity posed by the threat that
ones house might be viewed as a pile of garbage and torn
down accordingly, as well as the high probability that ones
children will not be able to escape this vicious circle of poverty,
since from an early age they are put into segregated classes
for the socially disadvantaged."

SLOVENIA: International
arrest warrant issued for Patria suspect Wolf (The Slovenia
Times): "The Ljubljana Local Court issued an international
arrest warrant for Walter Wolf, a Canada-based businessman charged
with corruption in the Patria defence trial who has failed to
appear in court for months. The trial, in which four other defendants,
including ex-PM Janez Jana are charged with corruption,
is nearing the end"

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